Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-06-30


0uRhg go Hxesss
Under "Grsat American Industries,
VIZ. Printed Book r. b. Bowker III
Harpsr's M1gasiaa for July gives the fol-
losing in regard ~ the inventicn OF
Before the middle Of the fifteenth een-
fury Europe had cheap material, paper;
an oily ink, developed for block book
printing, in place Of the fluid Ink, which
could De used only by the brush prob
ably the press itself skilled arfisans,
trained " the blosk-book work most
important Of all, the demnnd naussd BY
education II lacked movable types that
could be fitted syeuls aad readily to-
gsthsr, for neither the porcelain letters
OF Pitching nor tho individual stamps Of
tho early copyist+ hal developed TO this
point. strhe invention of psirHing" in
It's modern sense consisted In the
simple oduction Of such types, or
~ Da Winnie puts II, Of the
typo IN mld which should produce such
t, pos Fifteen elites claim to be the
Birthplace Of printing, bnt the honor
ie.ts between HaarlaiD, Strashure, and
Mainz The Dutch legend Ia TINT somc
time abont or previous to i440, one Lau-
rent Jnnszoon Roster. eustos or stxton
of church ia HARLEM, while ia the
lIout, or HARLEM wood, cut letters ON a
beech. tree, which suggested TO him
wooden types, from which he afterward
developed metal types; and that n man in
his employ, escaping with the secret TO
Manz, originated the art there. Hanr-
lem contains many portrait-monuments
OF Roster, and belief In him Is an article
of the Dutch faith, but later Investigators
claim that he is altogether myth, made
up, with much imagination and Home raa-
cality, of two HARLEM citizens, neither OF
whom was aprinter, and of the unknown
printer" of much later days.
The German story centres In JOHN
Gutenberg Of the family called Glens-
fieisch--taking his mothers name in
accordance with German custom, because
her family was dying out-ns to whom
there is definite historical chain OF evi.
dence, including the records of two law
suita. Nothing is certainly known of his
first 80 years. He is supposed to have
been born about 1899. at Mainz, whence
his family were exiled, going to Stras-
In lawsuit brought in Strasburg by an
heir Of one Andrew Dritzehen, to compel
Gutenberg to admit him 10 the secret and
benefit Of an art which the deceased
had bought by payment to Gutenberg.
This art seems 70 have been printing,
and the evidence in the suit shows that
Gutenberg sent his seryant TO Dritzehen'a
house, immediately on his death, to have
q 'form"of -four pieces" "lying in OF
about . presa,n separated "by turning
two buttons,n 'so that no one might
know what it ia !" Wedo not know, fol
Gutenberg won the suit and kept the
secret. Different modern schools con
strue ''it' to be parts Of the press, pages
of type, matrices, or q four-part type
mould, such az is known TO have beer
used by early printers It ia not def
nitely known whether Gutenberg printed
any books in Strasburg (some fragments
of type Donatus being most plansibly
connected with him there, which caused
German critic to declare that il Stras
burg is the cradle of printing, tit Ia I
cradle without baby" BY 144i
Gutenberg had removed to Mainz, TO-
there is record OF his hiring money
and in 1850 he made contract with JOIN
Fust, n money-lender, to provide none!
for paper, yellum. ink, wages and thu
other materials required" on half.profits
which contract was the basis of th,
second suit. In this suit, brought II
1455, Fust, who has been sadly confuse,
with that later DIR. Faust of Wittenberg
from whose wicked learning grew tn
Faust legend, foreclosed his mortgage
got possession Of part of Gutenberg
Implements and stock, and by help o
Gutenberg's apprentice, Peter Schoeffer
who afterward married Fust's daughte
Christina, took up the business Of print
ing There is legend that this Sohoeffer
and not Gutenberg, invented the type
mould, but recent Investigators show tina
thiainVention was peculiarly Gutenberg's
Gutenberg, who started now printing
J office after the separation, by help o
money from Conrad Humery, physical
and town clerk, printed two editions O
the Bible. lie printed also an edition 0
tho Donatus, several Ltttors of Indul
gence (the earlieat iob-worl) q broad
side Calendar of 1857, Ca,holicon O
1460, and many other things. rio wa
alive in ldG5, when Archbishop Adolp
made him one of the gentlemen Of hi
court, and was dead in ll68, for in tina
year Conrad HUNGRY had succeed to hi
effects.